Given that the Judgment Day pay-per-view was held in St. Louis,
Missouri -- at the Scottrade Centre -- one couldn't help but wonder what
legendary promoter Sam Muchnick would have made of a wrestling show
main-evented by the horrendously under-skilled Great Khali.

The answer, I'm sure, is not much, but credit must be given where credit
is due, and it is undeniable that the current WWE product is markedly better
than it has been in several years. The valuable air-time that had previously
been spent on third-rate comedy, has since largely been allotted to actual
wrestling bouts, allowing much better pacing, and thus, better matches.
Although it is hardly the norm, the 55-minute John Cena vs. Shawn
Michaels match from London, England, is a case in point.

The company went into Judgment Day with several serious injury problems,
which robbed them of the services of The Undertaker, Mr Kennedy, and Gregory
Helms, not to mention Triple-H, who continues to rehab his torn quadriceps.
Furthermore, Shawn Michaels was known to have a serious knee injury, which
will likely require surgery this week. With that in mind, there was a need
for balance between risk-taking, and producing a worthy PPV show.

Match #1: Ric Flair vs. Carlito

Prior to the bell, Jim Ross noted that Flair's first match in St. Louis
was back in 1978, against Pat O'Connor. Carlito, on the other hand, wasn't
even born until the following year.

Still, that didn't seem to bother "The Nature Boy," who began the contest
by quickly reddening Carlito's chest with some brutal chops. But his offence
was short-lived, as Carlito set to work on Flair's left arm with elbows and
punches, and also several shots into the top turnbuckle. He also ventured to
the outside to wrap Flair's arm around the ringpost, before striking it with
a dropkick.

Carlito's domination of this 15-minute contest was almost
squash-like, until Flair rebounded with a block of the Back Cracker, and
himself began working a body part, this time Carlito's left leg, in
preparation for the Figure Four Leglock. After stomps to the limb, and a big
kneedrop, Flair locked it on for the submission victory.

Winner: Ric Flair

Match rating: 6.0 / 10

Backstage, Shawn Michaels was about to discuss his recent concussion with
Todd Grisham, but he was attacked by Randy Orton, who threw him head-first
into the metal Judgment Day set. Michaels stayed down, and the concern shown
by agent Tony Garea put into doubt the bout with Orton later on the show.

Lashley went to work quickly on all three members of the opposition,
sending Umaga flying to the outside with a clothesline, and striking both
McMahons with punches. He then isolated Shane in the corner, and had the
foresight to move out of the way of an Umaga splash, meaning that the Samoan
squashed Shane instead. Eliminating Umaga with a Spear, Lashley then
powerslammed Shane for the win, in just a little over one minute.

That wasn't the end of proceedings, however, as Lashley challenged Vince
to re-enter the ring, to reclaim the title belt. Just as it seemed that
Vince was about to do so, however, Umaga attacked Lashley from behind, and
then struck with the Samoan Spike, at which point Vince took possession of
the belt, and claimed that Lashley would have to defeat him, not Shane, if
he wanted to win the Championship.

Winner: Bobby Lashley (though McMahon seemingly remains
champion)

Match rating: 3.0 (points deducted for no title change)

In between matches two and three, WWE's Dr. Rios informed a dazed Shawn
Michaels, and the audience, that he would not allow Michaels to contest his
proposed match with Randy Orton.

Match #3: CM Punk vs. Elijah Burke

CM Punk entered the ring with his ribs heavily taped, the result of an
attack by Burke, during a recent bout with Marcus Cor Von. And the ribs were
Burke's obvious target from the get-go, as he struck with punches and
knees.

Punk reversed the momentum with a series of nice moves, including a
T-Bone suplex, a delayed vertical suplex, and a twisting crossbody from the
second rope, which earned him a near-fall. After he had also struck with a
second-rope dropkick, which sent Burke from the apron to the floor, Punk
continued with an unconvincing middle-rope tope, before hitting a
superplex.

Despite all of this, Burke was able to recover, countering an attempted
Go 2 Sleep with his version of the STO, the Elijah Experience. After this
gained him only a near-fall, he also struck the Elijah Express double-knee
in the corner, with only the ropes saving Punk from a three-count. A second
attempt at the Elijah Experience was then countered, and Punk hit the Go 2
Sleep for the pinfall.

Winner: CM Punk

Match rating: 5.5 / 10

Match #4: Randy Orton vs. Shawn Michaels

After Edge proclaimed to Krystal that "the Rated-R era has begun" on
Smackdown, an apparently-concussed Shawn Michaels stumbled to the ring to
face Randy Orton. Though he was clearly in no state to do so, Michaels
demanded that the referee ring the bell, but at the very moment that he did
so, Orton attacked, hitting a spike-style DDT as Michaels' feet draped on the
second rope, as well as some vicious stomps to the head.

Orton then considered hitting the RKO, but instead took his time, and
decided to attempt the move from the top rope, by which time Michaels had
the presence of mind to use eye-rakes to make Orton keep his distance.
Michaels then managed a weary-looking top-rope elbow, but when he
contemplated Sweet Chin Music, he could not muster the strength, and
collapsed to the canvas. The referee then called for the bell, citing that
Michaels could not continue.

After the match, Orton feigned concern for his opponent's well-being, but
quickly showed his true colours by hitting the RKO. This prompted Michaels'
wife Rebecca (who some may remember as Whisper of the Nitro Girls) to
tearfully hit the ring, after which her husband was stretchered out of the
arena.

Continuing the storyline that Cade & Murdoch have a new, babyface
outlook, the RAW Tag Team Title match began with a number of feeling-out
wrestling holds, as headlocks and arm-wringers were the order of the day.
Within that, though, there was some nice quick-tag work, which for Cade &
Murdoch, led to the former hitting a hard lariat and an impressive standing
dropkick on Matt.

When Jeff and Murdoch entered the fray, however, it was the Hardys that
took the advantage, as Jeff hit a dropkick in the corner, and a corkscrew
moonsault. That was until he then missed a cannonball plancha, which allowed
Murdoch in particular to work him over, using the Canadian Destroyer, the
pin from which was broken up by Matt.

A jawbreaker allowed Jeff the time to make the tag to his brother, who
hit a bulldog on Cade, while delivering a clothesline to Murdoch at the same
time. Matt then hit the Side Effect on Cade, before Cade countered with a
nodowa into a sit-out powerbomb, a move which JBL described as being akin to
that used by "Hiroshi Hisaki" (of course, he actually meant Hiroshi
Hase).

An entertaining bout ended when Matt caught Cade with a Twist of Fate,
and Jeff came off the top rope with a Swanton Bomb for the pinfall. After
the match, The Hardys extended their hands to their challengers, and amidst
chants of "Shake their hands," Cade & Murdoch accepted.

Another injury victim -- although this time, as part of storyline --
Batista emerged for this title match continuing to wear strapping across his
right thigh. In the early going, however, this did not seem to affect him,
as he teased Edge with several shows of his superior strength.

The challenger's confidence quickly faded, however, when Edge struck a
chop-block, and avoided a Spear in the corner, which meant that Batista
himself hit the ringpost. But after a clothesline as Edge came off the top
rope, followed up with a powerslam and a sidewalk slam, Batista continued to
dominate, further scoring with a Spear, a second powerslam, and a
spinebuster. Just as he hit the spinebuster, however, his injured right leg
gave way, allowing Edge to roll him up for the three count.

Chris Benoit looked to get a fall in early in this Best of Three Falls
match, as he took MVP to the ground, for an attempt at both the Crippler
Crossface, and the Sharpshooter. Thankfully for MVP, he was able to block
both attempts, and soon went to work on Benoit's left knee, after a
drop-down from an Irish whip connected with the champion's out-stretched
limb.

Despite the injury, "The Crippler" was still able to hit three German
suplexes, but by the time he had completed the third, more damage had been
done to himself, than had been done to his opponent. After surviving further
attempts at the Crossface and Sharpshooter by getting to the ropes, the
challenger struck with kicks to the leg, and a dragon-screw leg whip,
although a second attempt at the move was countered with an enziguri. Benoit
then looked to hit an Electric Chair manoeuvre, but MVP countered it with
the Playmaker to take the first fall.

Benoit took the second fall to MVP with knees, chops, and headbutts,
seemingly in fury at having given up the first fall. But his knee was still
giving him major problems, which weren't aided by MVP using elbows to
deteriorate its condition. He also placed Benoit in a tree of woe, to
deliver a Yakuza kick to the knee, and locked in a heel hook on the ground,
before utilising a form of Boston crab, with Benoit's knee stretched behind
MVP's neck, as Benoit lay stomach-first on the canvas.

The champion was just able to survive this onslaught, and from there was
able to counter another attempt at the Playmaker, almost into the Crossface.
But MVP saw the move coming and positioned Benoit into a small package for
the win in two straight falls.

After a staredown exposed the incredible difference in size between
champion and challenger, it was The Great Khali who took the first
meaningful advantage in this contest, countering all of Cena's kicks and
punches with one huge clothesline. He then took Cena outside of the ring,
and whipped him into the ringsteps, though when he placed his foot on the
champion's chest to get the pinfall, he could only score two.

A missed legdrop provided Cena with an opportunity to hurt the 7-foot-3
giant, and he did strike a Blockbuster, before Khali displayed more
dexterity than thought possible, as he connected with a spinning kick. Back
outside the ring, Cena was twice introduced to the Raw announce table,
before being locked in a nerve hold to his right shoulder.

After Cena made somewhat of a comeback, locking Khali in the ropes after
two running shoulderblocks, he also managed to avoid a chop to the head, and
when the match again fell outside the ring, Cena dropkicked the ringsteps
into Khali's knee. This slowed the giant immensely, and as he clambered
underneath the bottom rope and back into the ring, Cena came off the top
rope with a legdrop. From there, he locked in the STFU, and even though
Khali's long legs appeared to touch the bottom rope on at least one
occasion, the referee failed to spot that, and awarded the match to Cena
when Khali eventually tapped out.

Winner: John Cena

Match rating: 6.0 / 10

Overall, Judgment Day was an above average show that maintained the
recent WWE philosophy of wrestling over ridiculousness. It didn't match the
high standards of Backlash, but doing so was never going to be easy.

Coupled with the fact that there were no real stand-out matches on the
card -- although The Hardys vs. Cade & Murdoch and Chris Benoit vs. MVP were
both fine contests -- Judgment Day suffered from a little too much of the
same thing, with four of the eight bouts here having one participant who
came into the match with a storyline injury. Though Shawn Michaels was
likely in no position to wrestle with his legitimate serious knee injury,
the three other injuries were pure storyline, and having so many matches
follow this pattern meant that the wins for Edge and MVP in particular were
diluted, at a time when both could have used a promotional push.

Away from that, the screwjob-style nature of the ECW Title match was a
major downer, and while the Punk vs. Burke match did contain some
spectacular moves, at nearly 17 minutes in duration, it stalled badly
at several points, with Burke in particular appearing lost in front of the
PPV cameras.

The one real triumph of the night was the WWE Title match, which was
infinitely better than perhaps anyone had expected. Although it was
relatively basic in content, the story of Cena vs. Khali was tell told, and
the finish was creative. Furthermore, even with the limitations of Khali,
the people seemed to buy it as a true main event, as the crowd reacted
impressively throughout.

In my introduction, I noted that the company had to find a balance at
Judgment Day, between taking risks, and creating a good PPV product. Despite
some criticisms, this goal was well-achieved, with no further injuries
incurred, and a mildly enjoyable event presented.